Glowing trees?

[Ren.182]

http://gizmodo.com/5689608/neon-trees

Taiwanese researchers have stumbled onto something truly magical. When gold nanoparticles were introduced into Bacopa caroliniana plants they caused the chlorophyll to produce reddish light. Bye-bye street lights? But wait, there's more:

While lit, the glowing trees vegetation consumed more carbon from the atmosphere than normal (i.e. the luminescence causes the cells to undergo photosynthesis).

PopSci calls this a "triple threat," in that the trees could cut energy costs, reduce global warming and keep streets safely lit at night. I'm more than inclined to agree.

I think this is pretty awesome if it does everything it says it does! I'd much rather have streets lined with trees then street lamps.

I wonder how much the gold nanoparticles cost to produce and how much you need to inject into a tree for this to happen? Would it be possible to do this across every road that's current lit at night across the globe?

Interesting none-the-less.

 

[ríomhaire]

I endorse this product/event.

 

[morgs]

This is pretty cool. I first pictured all those fantasy games with mystical forests of glowing trees. But lining a street with glowing trees is certainly favorable to street lamps in my opinion.

 

[dfc05]

I research environmental effects of nanomaterials.

I do not endorse this event.

Think about it: Trees grow. Trees incorporate nanoparticles. Leaves and twigs fall off. Nanoparticles, dispersed everywhere. We don't know if they are toxic.

And if they're really suggesting this to counter global warming, they are going to have to make a metric shit ton of trees.

 

[morgs]

Surely those risks would be covered? either that or it's the sister plan of chem trails.

 

[ríomhaire]

I research environmental effects of nanomaterials.

I do not endorse this event.

Think about it: Trees grow. Trees incorporate nanoparticles. Leaves and twigs fall off. Nanoparticles, dispersed everywhere. We don't know if they are toxic.

And if they're really suggesting this to counter global warming, they are going to have to make a metric shit ton of trees.

Gold is non-reactive. It is probably the safest element to shove into random things. On the other hand I would worry about inhaling gold particles. That could be bad news.

 

[Eejit]

I research environmental effects of nanomaterials.

I do not endorse this event.

Think about it: Trees grow. Trees incorporate nanoparticles. Leaves and twigs fall off. Nanoparticles, dispersed everywhere. We don't know if they are toxic.

And if they're really suggesting this to counter global warming, they are going to have to make a metric shit ton of trees.

Gold nanoparticles have been widely used for years as a tool in biotechnology though. I imagine we know more about them than almost any other nanoparticle.


However I'm rather skeptical that this could be scaled up the way gizmodo suggests. But then it's kinda their "thing" to extrapolate wildly from every little discovery.

 

[morgs]

I can see where this is going...

 

[StarBob]

The first two problems I saw after reading this -

1) Not all plants can photosynthesize constantly and it would kill them (assuming they have the same reaction).

2) If people learn that gold an be synthesized (even as nanoparticles) it might drive the price down. Doesn't matter if it's even applicable, it's just the news that "hey gold can be synthesized" and everyone jumps their gold commodities.

Both could be nothing though so whatever.

 

[<RJMC>]

or people will start choping the trees cuz "it got gold inside!"

 

[VirusType2]

I read this a couple of days ago, but I didn't post it because:


1) Leaves are temporary.

2) The leaves don't form with the nanoparticles in them.

3) This is like Flying Cars. It seems it's possible and useful, but it's just not cost effective.

I can see where this is going...

[IMG

What's this from?

 

[Ravioli]

pics or it didnt happen

 

[Dekstar]

The article failed to miss out that glowing only occurs under a UV light source, e.g. blacklight.

 

[Eejit]

The article failed to miss out that glowing only occurs under a UV light source, e.g. blacklight.

Actually, no. That's the whole point.

Chlorophyll shows bioluminescence upon high wavelength (400 nm) ultra violet excitation. In contrast, the gold nanoparticles are excited at shorter wavelengths and emit at 400 nm. By implanting the nanoparticles into Bacopa caroliniana plants, Su was able to induce the chlorophyll in the leaves to produce a red emission.

 

[Stigmata]

Trees at $200/oz

 

[Warped]

Everyone would be gold diggers in the future!

 

[Emporius]

Nothing like walking home alone late at night BATHED IN AN EERIE RED LIGHT

 

[Avoidist]

2) If people learn that gold an be synthesized (even as nanoparticles) it might drive the price down. Doesn't matter if it's even applicable, it's just the news that "hey gold can be synthesized" and everyone jumps their gold commodities.

Hang on - I realised this was just a quick brainstorm but are you implying that the trees actually make gold? That's kind of impossible unless the trees become working particle accelerators or manage to accumulate the nigh non-existant traces of gold in our atmosphere.

If anything, the price would go up since the amount of gold that would have to be used in so many trees to get an appreciable effect in each tree would be huge.

 

[dfc05]

Surely those risks would be covered? either that or it's the sister plan of chem trails.

Sadly no. The new trend is to throw silver nanoparticles into everything for is anti-bacterial properties. Like "anti-deodorant" socks. Of course the nanoparticles just get washed out of the socks and go to the wastewater treatment plant, where it can be incorporated into sludges that we use to fertilize crops .

Gold is non-reactive. It is probably the safest element to shove into random things. On the other hand I would worry about inhaling gold particles. That could be bad news.

That is definitely true, although I've heard that human bodies have a difficult time processing and removing gold. In addition, there could be a non-chemical-specific particle effect, e.g. if the nanoparticle is able to be uptaken from the food through the gut -- some research says yes, others no -- it's hard to keep track because most toxicology experiments are an endless array of expose [organism type x] to [nanoparticle type y] and see if [organism type x] [dies/has growth defects/gets tumor/showed particle uptake after we sliced and diced it/passed nanoparticles into its eggs]. I was at this conference where they laced fish food with silver nanoparticles (they had a creepy name for it like "surprise pellets" or "special munchies") and fed it to the fish. Toxicology is a sick sick world........

...Wait, where was I. Oh -- if it passes the blood brain barrier, the brain cell's defense can be to make chemicals to degrade the particle. But since the particles are non-degradable, the brain would be endlessly throwing out chemicals and end up injuring itself.

I don't mean to say they're definitely bad, but we ought to at least find out whether they are before using them commercially (obviously if you're just doing it for a small scale research experiment, whatevs, go ahead). Like rimfire said about the inhalation thing, one of the worries is that nanoparticles become the new asbestos, especially after someone noticed that carbon nanotubes happen to be shaped a lot like asbestos.

 

[VirusType2]

That is definitely true, although I've heard that human bodies have a difficult time processing and removing gold. In addition, there could be a non-chemical-specific particle effect, e.g. if the nanoparticle is able to be uptaken from the food through the gut -- some research says yes, others no -- it's hard to keep track because most toxicology experiments are an endless array of expose [organism type x] to [nanoparticle type y] and see if [organism type x] [dies/has growth defects/gets tumor/showed particle uptake after we sliced and diced it/passed nanoparticles into its eggs]. I was at this conference where they laced fish food with silver nanoparticles (they had a creepy name for it like "surprise pellets" or "special munchies") and fed it to the fish. Toxicology is a sick sick world........

...Wait, where was I. Oh -- if it passes the blood brain barrier, the brain cell's defense can be to make chemicals to degrade the particle. But since the particles are non-degradable, the brain would be endlessly throwing out chemicals and end up injuring itself.

I don't mean to say they're definitely bad, but we ought to at least find out whether they are before using them commercially (obviously if you're just doing it for a small scale research experiment, whatevs, go ahead). Like rimfire said about the inhalation thing, one of the worries is that nanoparticles become the new asbestos, especially after someone noticed that carbon nanotubes happen to be shaped a lot like asbestos.

There's an easy way to find out. Ever heard of Goldschlager?

I've had it before, long ago. I just drank all the gold; I thought you were supposed to. Nothing better than shitting bricks of gold.

It used to have a lot more gold in it.

 

[dfc05]

^^^Haha, that was actually the product being referred to when I was told about the "Hey you know you can't process that gold" thing. Hard to tell if the dude was just pulling my leg though.

On that note, don't drink colloidal silver constantly. You will turn blue. For real.

On that note again, if you drink tonic water (with quinine) your urine will fluoresce.
I know this because I was forced to do a lab where one of our lab group members had to drink tonic water, piss in a cup, extract said quinine from his own urine, then hand it over for us to stick in the fluorimeter. It fluoresced. In fact, ours fluoresced a lot more than most groups'. Dude tasked with pissing it out: "I decided not to piss at all the entire day until it was time to collect the sample." Me: "Why are you telling me this?"

 

[VirusType2]

Oh, I remember that blue guy from the news.


I've read that gold injections are very effective in fighting cancer or something.

That reminds me of South Park, where Magic Johnson injects liquefied US currency to beat HIV.

 

[morgs]

What's this from?

Fallout.